Pan-Arab MVNO Friendi Group has secured US$25 million of new funding to further accelerate expansion plans across the Middle East, Africa and Asia region.

Friendi was established in 2006 and operates as a MVNO and B-Brand enabler. Today it operates either MVNOs or B-brand partnerships in Oman, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The new funding for Friendi consists of US$10 million equity from new and existing shareholders, plus a US$ 15 million structured debt facility from Standard Bank. The sizeable new funding for Friendi is a vote of confidence from international financial institutions and investors in the company as well as the future potential of the region’s mobile telecommunications sector.

Commenting on the new funding Mikkel Vinter CEO & founder, Friendi Group said; “Friendi Group continues to expand rapidly, and benefit from telecom markets across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia region moving towards increasingly segmented customer propositions. The new funding from distinguished financial institutions and investors supports Friendi Group’s vision of establishing a multi-market regional footprint. We are particularly delighted that the approval of the Standard Bank facility follows an exhaustive bankability review by Standard Bank of Friendi Group’s operations and its future prospects”.

The US$10 million equity element of this funding is provided partly by existing Friendi Group shareholders, led by Dolphin International of Oman, and partly by a new shareholder, National Technology Enterprises Company (NTEC) of Kuwait. NTEC is mandated by the Kuwait Council of Ministers with a clear strategy and goals, and was created to play a vital role in servicing major stakeholders in Kuwait with their technology needs. NTEC’s business model is that of a technology projects development company utilising investment tools such as private equity, venture capital and direct investments to initiate and stimulate technology projects in Kuwait and the local region.

The US$ 15 million structured debt facility has been provided by Standard Bank, a global bank with emerging market focus headquartered in South Africa. Standard Bank has operations in 32 countries across Africa, Europe and the Americas.

UAE telco Du, reported revenue of AED2.038 billion (US$554.8 million) for the quarter to end-March, an increase of 29 per cent year-on-year. The company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 69.4 per cent year-on-year to AED621 million, while net profit before royalty for the first quarter of 2011 increased 112 per cent to AED412 million.

Following the government’s announcement that Du would pay a 15 per cent royalty rate for the year ended December 31, 2010, the company will provision for royalty payments of 50 per cent of its profits until it is advised on the rate for 2011. Du expects to invest a total of AED1.7 billion in 2011, with AED477 million accounted for during the first quarter of the year, 52 per cent of which was spent on the rollout of its mobile network.

Subscriber growth and rising data usage were the key drivers behind Du’s strong sustained mobile revenues, which reached AED1.576 billion, up 35 per cent year-on-year. Mobile data revenues more than doubled from AED59 million in Q110 to AED141 million a year later and accounted for nine per cent of total mobile revenues. Du said it added 272,000 net active mobile subscribers during the quarter, taking its wireless customer base to 4.604 million as at end-March, of which 306,400 were post-paid customers (seven per cent of the total base), up 87 per cent year-on-year.

Mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) remained steady, at AED118 for the quarter, up from AED108 during the same period a year earlier. Revenues generated by Du’s fixed business, including fixed telephony, TV and broadband, amounted to AED337 million, a 27 per cent year-on-year increase. The company’s fixed line subscriber base grew 27.3 per cent from 456,700 in the first quarter of 2010 to 581,500 a year later, with 20,700 lines added during the quarter. Du has forecast a nationwide rollout of its fixed line services before the end of the year.

Kuwait based Wataniya Telecom reported that its first quarter profits to end-March jumped to KWD 285.1 million (US$1.03 billion), up from KWD 16.2 million a year ago. The figure was boosted by a one-off gain of KWD 265.5 million recorded due to revaluation of its existing interest in Tunisiana following the increase in the shareholding from 50 per cent to 75 per cent.

Net profit without the one-off gain amounted to KWD 19.6 million, reflecting an increase of 21.2 per cent year-on-year.

Revenues for Q111 amounted to KWD 169.8 million, up 35.1 per cent.

Wataniya’s total customer base increased to 16.6 million at the end of Q111, up 5.6 per cent.

Huawei Technologies today released its audited full-year 2010 financial results highlighted by sales revenues of CNY 185.2 billion (US$28.4 billion), a 24.2 per cent growth over the previous year. Huawei also reported an increased net profit of CNY 23.8 billion, up 30 per cent from 2009, and net profit margin of 12.3 per cent.

Huawei maintained steady growth in 2010 on the back of notable expansion in overseas markets as well as continued development in its three core business divisions – Telecom Networks, Global Services, and Devices. By the end of 2010, Huawei had deployed over 80 SingleRAN networks for operators, among which 28 LTE networks were commercially launched or ready to be launched. Huawei also shipped 120 million devices around the world.

The company also launched its enterprise business in 2010 and intends to dedicate extensive resources to further develop this offering, which provides network infrastructure, fixed and wireless communication, data centre, and cloud computing solutions for global industry and enterprise customers.

Qualcomm has posted a 46 per cent jump in its second fiscal quarter revenues to end-March to US$3.88 billion, while net profit rose by 29 per cent to US$999 million.

The figures were boosted by a US$410 million license settlement with Panasonic.

"We are pleased to report record quarterly revenues, and we are raising our revenue and earnings guidance for the year as the demand for smartphones across an array of geographies and tiers continues to grow," said Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. "In addition, we have resolved the second of the two previously disclosed licensee disputes."

The company shipped 118 million CDMA modem units in the three months to the end of March, up 27 percent year-on-year and flat sequentially.